Fordi, day 31 of Winter, 556

Because of changes to the way Pathfinders perceive paths that are beyond their ability to open (without more training), we now know that the path outside Camp Dred - with those tantalizing "new" blue-ish Noids - cannot be openned until we manage to get to the next Pathfinder Book at the very least. So now we Pathfinders know that we need not stop and stare here any longer as the group continues on into the Dredwood.

We reached the Pitch caves in well under an hour, using the new "zu-less" method for killing the Noids in the upper Malachite caves. So far, this has been effective simply though our numbers, but I worry that we could get wiped out one of these days by an surplus of Malachite Arachnoids.

After last week's generally poor fighting performance and our final fiasco in Pitch cave 3, we were ready for some progress in the Pitch caves today.

Thankfully, we fought much better today and the Noids behaved themselves (no 10 Crimson lures), and we made very good progress.

We were also hopeful that the recent Chaos Storm might have thinned the numbers of Crimson and Malachite Arachnoids in Pitch cave 9 to a more manageable level. We got close, but never got the chance to look there.

There was some apprehension that Drablak was our only teleporting Mystic today, since the last time he had tried to send the group into Pitch cave 6 several weeks ago, we was unable to send even 3 exiles that distance. He must have been training diligently at this skill, because he did a seamless job today. Everyone glowed brightly, and no one was left behind. One less thing to worry about!

When we arrived in the Pitch cave 6 Landing Zone, we found it pleasantly nearly empty, and the 3 Crimson Noids there were quickly killed. The runners lured quite a number of Noids away from us to the Northwest, and we quickly formed fighting ranks and prepared to kill them one-by-one. We methodically thinned the Noids until the caern was empty, and we hungrily moved on into Pitch cave 7.

The webs were flying intensely in Pitch cave 7, and until the healer rod was set up, it was quite sticky all around. Once things settled down, we began thinning these as well. Many webbers were trapped in the West pit, however, which was both good and bad. We managed to clear the rest of the cave faster, but when we began to move up to set up for invading PC8 we had to dodge many webs being flung as we moved past the pit. There was another problem too: although there was a zu wall holding the Noids in the pit, it was too deadly to get close enough to it to maintain it well. This proved our undoing.

When the call went out to move up to the North to prepare to enter Pitch cave 8, I was among the first to run the web gauntlet and reach the North chamber. I quickly took a glance at the path there, and saw that it was indeed too difficult to open without more training.

At that moment, while the group was strung out throughout the cave wending it's way North, Noids started appearing. I saw a Pitch and a Crimson, and assumed they were new and attacked them along with the other few fighters nearby.

What I could not see was that a small gap had openned in the Kudzu wall at the West pit, and more and more Noids were slipping through that hole, cutting our forces in half. The folks in the North tried to rally, and managed to retreat behind a Kudzu wall to the small section of the cave right before Pitch cave 8. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough fighters to take on the Pitch Noid on the other side of that wall or enough healers to raise any of the fallens that were chained to us. In that tightening space, with webs reducing the area we could run in safely, it was only a matter of time. The Southern group fared no better.

Finally, when the only healer still up in our small group - Talin - fell, Nightbird openned an Ethereal Portal and stepped in, and Sa'Wrap gathered as many fallens as he could on a chain and followed. Unfortunately, Sa'Wrap was surrounded by Ethereal beasts and Undine, and an Ethereal Cloud finished him off. Graciously, others in the group that had departed came to our aid in the Etheral Plane and brought us home safely. Most of the roup was not so lucky today.

Once again, a failing Zu wall defeated us. Those who saw the problem tell me that it was only a tiny hole from one plant dying but the Noids were very aggressive about wriggling through. And it is very difficult to assess a wall or plant more Kudzu in the face of a full barrage of webs. Apparently that pit was very full of webbers.

I think we will once again be arguing the merits of trapping Noids and bypassing them, or just killing them all before moving on. Both strategies have benefits and drawbacks, as we have learned the hard way.

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